Roundtable: Resetting Expectations after Oklahoma State’s Loss to Tulsa

Last week’s roundtable was filled with a childlike wonder that Tulsa promptly stomped out.

With Oklahoma State losing its season opener to the Golden Hurricane last week and now welcoming a Top 10 Oregon squad to town, we’ve gotten back together and reset our expectations for the Cowboys’ 2026 season.

Marshall Scott: Now that some time has past, where are you guys at with this team?

It was obviously a massive letdown, but I think it hit the fanbase particularly hard because the past two seasons when the Cowboys started to lose, it felt terminal — like it wasn’t going to get better. I don’t think that’s the case with this team. I think they’ll win some games, but losing to Tulsa definitely reset/lowered expectations for the group.

Kyle Cox: You said it. Definitely knocked them off a bit of a pedestal that I think we all had put them on. I think the key to remember is that this is Year 1 and it’s a new team and coaching staff.

And it is a different team than the one that went 1-11 last year. It also doesn’t help that they’ve got to follow up that loss with a visit from a Top 10 Oregon team that embarrassed OSU last year.

Kinda need to get through it this week, hopefully keeping it closer than 66 points.

Tyler Waldrep: I think Morris is a good coach still. The offense was a lot more interesting, harder to defend that what we’ve seen in the last two years. Now most of that is probably because of the talent at QB.

I still think Drew is a good, probably great QB, from a physical standpoint. He definitely has NFL traits. I’ve always said I need to see how he plays mentally at this level. For the most part, I thought he did average in that regard in Game 1 given the pressure the OL allowed. That’s where I’m worried. I’m not confident the line will get much better. It totally could, but we saw poor offensive line play absolutely since 2024 and it played a big role in 2025’s failures as well.

I guess I think this team will win a few games, but hard to say how many or when.

Marshall: Going into the year, I thought games against Houston, Kansas State, Texas Tech and Arizona State would determine OSU’s season. It now feels like games against West Virginia, UCF, Colorado, Iowa State and Kansas will determine the season.

Tyler: I think I agree with that. I’m now worried about every Big 12 game instead of just the really tough road ones and Texas Tech.

Kyle: From the expectation standpoint, I think a reset of what is a successful season is needed. I think a bowl game would be a win. Which, like I’ll go back to, is more on par with a complete roster reset and new staff.

Marshall: I don’t know that many will pick the Pokes to beat the Ducks this weekend. To Kyle’s point, this isn’t the preferred get-right spot. But what could we see in this game that would sooth some concerns you have for the Cowboys?

Kyle: I think Tyler touched on it. The offense needs pay off some of those drives with touchdowns. Oregon’s defensive front is really good so I’m not super confident. But a flash of some of the playmaking ability would really help, I think. Maybe that means getting more creative with the playbook.

But that is where this team is now. They’re going to be underdogs until they prove otherwise, especially this weekend, so why not chuck the kitchen sink?

Tyler: I think I need to see three things.

1. At least one truly awesome longer completion from Drew (like 15ish or longer yards).
2. The offensive line provide more consistent protection (even if they still give up sacks to a pretty good DL)
3. I’d like to see the defense still remain competitive. I actually really liked how they played TU. Fourth-down failures and turnovers put them in a bad position last week. Yeah, they gave up big plays, but I’m OK with that especially in Game 1 under those circumstances. I’m sure Oregon will expose this group a lot, but if the defense can still win high-leverage plays like third down and mostly be in the right spot I’ll probably feel OK regardless of the final score.

Marshall: Yeah, I think I’m in a similar boat to you guys in that the offense needs to show some signs of life through points or big plays. That was perhaps the most-surprising part about the actual game in Tulsa is that OSU had virtually no big chunk plays that resembled the No. 1 offense from North Texas a year ago. If you can hit on a couple of those against the Ducks and keep the score around the spread (+22.5), I think you take that on the chin and get ready for the next week.

Kyle: I’m really interested to see how this team responds. Do they come out swinging? Do they embrace the underdog role? Morris even mentioned a need to let them know they hadn’t won anything during camp. Did they come in riding too much hype against Tulsa?

Tyler: Either we will never fully know what undid this team at Tulsa … or we will watch this team lose a lot like last year’s and realize in a month that somehow these guys just aren’t good. I’m hoping TU just stands out as this really weird anomaly when we look back on this year.

Marshall: Yeah, I’m leaving room for the world that the Tulsa game was just a wacky, Week 1 upset, but the past two seasons also have me on my toes in thinking maybe we were all just dead wrong about this group.

The past three seasons have showed OSU what the floor and the ceiling are for losing to a Group of 6 team. In 2023, the Cowboys lost to South Alabama and made the Big 12 title game. In 2025, the Cowboys lost to Tulsa and were basically dead from that point on.

I’m not sure either extreme is realized this year, but those are the waters the Cowboys are swimming in.

Tyler: Besides OL (which I assume we agree on), what’s the weak link for this team?

Kyle: I’m not sure I have one. I’m not ready to point to any one spot on the offense based on the OL and a short sample size. Maybe RB depth? But that feels to early to say.

Like you said, I thought the defense played OK in Week 1. I know that’s a non-committal answer.

Marshall: It was all so meh, that I’m not really sure I know.

Felt like Clint Eastwood was watching that Tulsa game

Tyler: From a position point, I think it’s TE, which to be fair to both OSU, the guys we saw Saturday were probably supposed to be third options at best. So from that standpoint, they probably excelled, but it felt like they were a slightly worse than needed to be as blockers and definitely not good enough receivers.

I was a bit worried about the “super deep and awesome and strong and fast and did I mention awesome DE” spot not producing much at Tulsa. Feels like if you can’t get to Tulsa’s QB who will you get to?

Marshall: Yeah, I’m perhaps wondering if the depth of the edge rushers might’ve said more about the offensive line in camp than it did about the edge rushers. I’m trying to not be too over reactionary to the O-line considering Sexton’s injury threw a wrench into things, but muting those feelings is difficult.